Japfest 2011 - the sun shone, the cars came, and the people loved it.

 Japfest.  What can be said about Japfest?  Well, the first thing that has to be noted is that no matter what the weather report says, when Japfest comes to town it brings the sunshine along with it.  The 14th of May 2011 was no exception with the descending crowds of Jap mad car fans bringing along the summertime with them.  For an outdoor car show there is no better feature to have in place than some sparkly warm sunshine glinting off glossy show-ready automotive paintwork.   Attendance figures matched last year's record breaker with over 15,000 Japanese car enthusiasts attending the show at Castle Combe Circuit in Wiltshire.
 
The show again was split between track action, car club displays, static car displays with the day being completely packed out.  You would be hard pushed to go along and find yourself getting bored although I did meet a couple of disappointed Nissan Z fans who both perked up when I handed them my show guide of track action times which they both rushed off with.  The Performance Direct event stand featured beautiful promo girls Hannah Shine and Faye Evette who certainly added some heat to an already hot day.  The only thing that could have made the stand any hotter would have been to have a modified Nissan Skyline GTR R34 and an R35 sat next to each other.  Oh, hang on, that is exactly what we did have!   Inbetween the photographers buzzing around taking photos of the promo girls and the cars, our insurance staff managed to quote some of the best Japanese car insurance deals available anywhere. 

All day long I could hear the high pitched roar of Japanese tuned engines revving well into the red line as show goers tore up the track in their own cars.  If you were compiling an encyclopaedia of Japanese cars then you probably could have photographed every one you would need for the book all within Japfest.  The Extreme Drift Battle is always something special to behold at Japfest and this year was even more exciting with even more drifting action.  The Drift Battle Team Champions prize was finally won by the JDM Garage team who put on a stunning display.  In fact, if shredding tyres were a language then JDM Garage could have created poetry from it.  There are few things more exciting to watch around a track than someone driving on the very edge of control and possibly at the edge of their sanity - all the way round the circuit.  As well as drifting action attendee's were able to take a high-speed passenger ride around the circuit in Redbrick Racing's ex BTCC Honda Civic's which is something I missed out on but it certainly looked exciting and each passenger I saw getting out of the car afterwards did have a rather large and probably un-removable grin.

Richard Schofield, Future Group Publishing Director, said after the show: “Japanese cars are an enduring passion for our attendees and the continued success of Japfest is testament to the vibrancy of the aftermarket tuning scene and how enthusiastic our customers are.”

"Well Rob, that all sounds very exciting" I hear you all shout, "But what's next? What could you follow that with?".  Well, the answer to that is simple - Modified Nationals, this weekend, 28th & 29th May 2011 at the Peterborough Showground.  Performance Direct will be back, this time handing out the best modified insurance quotes at the show, as well as showing off more of the Performance Direct promo girls, and we have three special cars to show you.  Firstly we have a VW Mk1 Golf.  Doesn't sound exciting?  Seen it all before?  Well this particular Golf is more than a little modified as it has a 1850cc, GT35, Turbo, two stage nitrous lump under the bonnet with 8 injectors and four wheel drive which mean that it can smash the magic 10.0 seconds on a 1/4 mile run at Santa Pod.  And those are just a small part of the special mods that make this a very special car.  For those of you who are fans of motor racing we have a stripped out and modified Seat Leon Cupra straight out of this year's Cupra Cup and as a special treat we will also feature the Radical SR3 Race Car.  Performance Direct sponsor the Radical Clubman's Cup which is one of the few series to offer truly fast yet affordable racing that not only feels fast but genuinely is as quick as real motor sport.  Radical became renowned for destroying the lap record at the Nurburgring with no car coming close to touching it since.  Performance Direct are proud to stand alongside Radical to help get more people driving the racing season they've always dreamed of.  

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